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Summer Visit - 2025 - IMPULS

The summer visit to Caltech is 4 days long and is the only time during the year of work when all the participants on the team come together in person to work intensively on the data. Generally, each educator may bring up to two students to the summer visit that are paid for by NITARP, and they may raise funds to bring two more. The teams work at Caltech; the summer visit typically includes a half-day tour of JPL, which is a favorite site for group photos. Reload to see a different set of quotes.

The IMPULS team came to visit in July 2025. The 4 core team educators attended, plus 6 students.

Quotes

  • [student: To be an astronomer,] I think it is important to have perseverance, confidence, and adaptability.
  • [student:] I was very surprised to see how vast the data and images were from different telescopes. I’m not totally sure what I expected but all of the data sets, initially before editing, look very different from one another but in the end all produce (sometimes) similar rotation periods.
  • [Advice to others:] Be ready to work! I have truly enjoyed being a part of the NITARP experience. I have such a better understanding of not only how to access data, but how to interpret it.
  • [Qualities needed for being an astronomer:] You have to be relentlessly inquisitive (“What happens if I tweak this parameter?”) and willing to chase down errors. A missing decimal, a mislabeled column, or a stray cosmic-ray spike can completely change your interpretation. Meticulousness is a useful quality.
  • The most interesting thing was probably the people: for the team to meet each other, to hear the stories of your IPACmates, and to be able to chat with them over donuts. “Scientist” seems like such a vague, far-away concept (especially for students, but for me, too), that it’s always fascinating to hear that they’re (usually) normal folks just a few different decisions from where we ended up. I think it was a great and eye-opening opportunity for our students to realize that, no matter where they come from, no matter what unique talents they may have, they could find a place for themselves in the science community.

Related Teams

Summer Visit - 2025 - IMPULS